Bible Strands
Job 38:33
Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks to Job from the whirlwind, directly answering Job’s prior demands for a hearing. This question sits between two other cosmic inquiries about constellations and clouds in Job 38:32 and 38:34.
The words — The Hebrew חֻקּוֹת (chu.kot) means “statutes” or “laws,” and מִשְׁטָרוֹ (mish.taro) denotes “its rule” or “its dominion.” The text literally asks whether Job understands celestial decrees and can place their governance upon the earth.
The thread — The motif of God’s fixed cosmic order runs through Jeremiah 31:35, which notes the sun and moon set in place for light, and Genesis 8:22, which declares the permanence of seasonal cycles. Genesis 1:16 similarly records God appointing the heavenly lights to rule day and night.
Why it lands — The verse plainly states that cosmic governance operates by divine decree rather than human control. It requires the reader to abandon demands for personal justification while recognizing the impossibility of directing heavenly systems.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 31:35 Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day, who sets in order the moon and stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the LORD of Hosts is His name:
- Genesis 8:22 As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall never cease.”
- Genesis 1:16 God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. And He made the stars as well.
- Job 38:12 In your days, have you commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place,
- Psalms 148:6 He established them forever and ever; He issued a decree that will never pass away.
- Jeremiah 33:25 This is what the LORD says: If I have not established My covenant with the day and the night and the fixed order of heaven and earth,
- Psalms 119:90 Your faithfulness continues through all generations; You established the earth, and it endures.